Main description:

This Conference on biomedical applications of. lasers ~Ias organized by the Quantum Electronics Divisional Board of the European Physical Society (E.P.S.) and held at the Villa of Poggio Imperiale in Florence, September 3-6, 1979. As kno~m, laser surgery (especially microsurgery and endoscopic photo- coagulation) has recently made important progress, and the field is expand- i ng rapidly. Very significant applications of lasers have also been achieved in Bi- ology during recent years (cell microsurgery, cell counting and sorting, cytofluorimeter devices, etc.) and the potential of laser techniques in this field is nO~1 sufficiently well establ ished. A new class of applications of laserradiJtion in Medicine has recently been made possible by important results obtained with low intensity (non- coagulative) visible lasers, such as photodynamic therapy of tumors.
At the same time important branches of Medicine, where light effects are studied and optical techniques are presently used for a certain number of clinical applications, such as dermatology and pediatry, appear to be still in their infancy as far as the proper use of optical radiation and techniques, and the understanding of fundamental photoinduced biological processes are con- cerned. Moreover, laser photobiology appears a very promising field for the investigation of fundamental processes at the biomolecular level.

Contents:

I. General Introduction to Photomedicine and Photobiology.- Photomedicine: Potentials for Lasers. An Overview.- Common Misconceptions About Light.- Basic Photobiology and Open Problems.- Photobiology of Ultraviolet Radiation.- Light Induced Covalent Combination Between Furocoumarins and DNA. A Chemical Approach.- II. Photodynamic Therapy of Tumors.- The Molecular Biology of Photodynamic Action.- Photoradiation Therapy of Malignant Tumors; Role of the Laser.- Hematoporphyrin as a Sensitizer in Tumor Phototherapy: Effect of Medium Polarity on the Photosensitizing Efficiency and Role of the Administration Pathway on the Distribution in Normal and Tumor-Bearing Rats.- Spectroscopic Properties of Human Skin and Photodestruction of Tumors.- Photodynamic Effect of Hematoporphyrin (HP) on Cells Cultivated in Vitro.- Laser Fluorescence Bronchoscopy for Early Lung Cancer Localization.- III. Photodermatology.- The Future Prospects for Lasers in Dermatological Photobiology.- Will Lasers be Useful in Photodermatology?.- A Survey of the Acute Effects of UV Lasers on Human and Animal Skin.- Helium-Cadmium Laser (325 nm) Irradiation of Pigmented and Unpigmented Mammalian Skin: Electron Microscopic Effects on Dermal Nerve Fibers.- The Application of Dye Lasers in Photodermatology.- Photorecovery in Human Skin.- IV. Phototherapy of Hyperbilirubinemia.- to the Mechanism of Phototherapy of Jaundice and Related Technology.- Photoinduced Modification of Human Serum Albumin During Phototherapy of Jaundiced Newborns.- A Laser Flash Photolysis Study of Bilirubin.- V. Absorption and Fluorescence Spectroscopy.- Laser Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Biomolecules.- Spectroscopic Properties of Quinacrine Mustard.- Optical-Microwave Double Resonance Spectroscopy of in Vivo Chlorophyll.- Evaluation of the Chromatin Functional State by Means of Fluorescence Decay Time Analysis.- VI. Raman and Picosecond Spectroscopy.- Resonance-Raman Spectroscopy in Biological Problems: Use of Labels.- Enhanced Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering From Living Cells of "Chlorella Pyrenoidosa".- Time Resolved Resonance Raman Scattering as a Probe of Hemoglobin Dynamics.- Direct and Reverse Photoreactions in Bacteriorhodopsin at Low Temperatures on Picosecond Time Scale.- Selective Action on Nucleic Acids Components by Picosecond Light Pulses.- Laser Selective Photobiology: Dye-Biomolecule Complexes.- Picosecond Fluorometry of the Exciton Diffusion in Green Plant Antenna Chlorophyll.- Subpicosecond Photodissociation and Time Resolved Spectroscopy of Recombination Processes in Carbonmonoxyhemoglobin.- Index of Contributors.